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daniel robert chapman wrote:I've just begun 'Sanctuary' by William Faulkner. The previous owner of this book annotated it in the margins, which is distracting at the best of times - I always end up trying to work out what their notes are referring to. In this instance it is compounded by the notes being in both English and French.

God, what a wonderful, dark, desperate book. Faulkner was really mining some unsavory parts of his imagination when he wrote that one.

In the movie adaptation, they cast Yves Montand as the Popeye character. Ridiculous.

The movie's horrible, by the way. Don't bother. They mashed Sanctuary and Requiem for a Nun together and it's a mess.

I'm not reading anything right now cause I don't have the time. Garrrgh.

Please recommend me a few classix for the summer, PRF'ers, in between the time I'll spend trying to find/read/memorize every volume of the Travis McGee series. John D. MacDonald was the best at those summer mystery novels. What a great, mercilessly entertaining writer.

SecondEdition wrote:Please recommend me a few classix for the summer, PRF'ers .

I haven't been reading much lately.
The last great novel I've read was All that counts by Georg M. Oswald.

The book's hero is a manager in the bank's liquidation department.
"All'' in the title refers to money:
It's like a sport -- I squeeze the last drop of blood out of people, and when no one believes there's any left, I give him a good shake, and lo and behold, there's a couple more drops.

Oswald is a very sardonic writer and has a pretty dry sense of humor. He's a bit like Michel Houellebecq, but better.

SecondEdition wrote:Please recommend me a few classix for the summer, PRF'ers,

It may or may not be a modern classic, but I highly recommend "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon if you haven't read it yet. A monumental book.

He also wrote something lighter that's a perfect summer read called, fittingly, "Summerland". You'll especially like it if you're a baseball fan.

Ty Webb wrote:

SecondEdition wrote:Please recommend me a few classix for the summer, PRF'ers,

It may or may not be a modern classic, but I highly recommend "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon if you haven't read it yet. A monumental book.

I fucking hate Michael Chabon.

Thank you for your contribution.

i'm almost done with Bukowski's 'Women' which reads like soft porn by the way...but it's a good quick read...

i'll either set my sights on The Picture of the Dorian Grey or The 120 Days Of Sodomy and Other Writings next...

daniel robert chapman wrote:I recently finished 'Taras Bulba' by Gogol. Um, ol' Gogol seems to have a bit of a downer on our Jewish friends, doesn't he? The scene when the Cossacks were about to set out to war and suddenly a load of Jews appear to sell them supplies - I could only laugh.

I'm just gonna bump myself here like a twat. I kinda brought this thread back up for two reasons: first, that it is the fearsomest and only allowable book thread on the forum and always brings good stuff up and second, that the anti-semitism in this book left me really confused. I figured someone else on EA might have more experience of Gogol than me, and could straighten it out. I mean, I get that part of Gogol's stylings was the way he characterised certain groups of people but lots of this seemed beyond the pale to me, as a first time reader.

I was curious as to whether this is an acceptable tick of Gogol's or whether I should just file his books under 'shouldn't show to... anybody'?

Ty Webb wrote:Thank you for your contribution.

I just find him so incredibly condescending and his stories, although inspired, feels a bit like watching a Rube Goldberg machine for a really long time only to have it nut-punch you.

Reading Cormac's "All the Pretty Horses" at the moment and it really, really makes me very, very excited. I just love it very much.